Tales From The Trail: Competing In the ECC Championships
Tales From The Trail:
Running The East Coast Conference Championships
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| Reyes with head coach Paul Rupprecht. |
By: Jamsel Reyes
It was a clear October Sunday morning and the East Coast Conference Cross Country Championships was on deck to start. All the conference teams were on hand to push their bodies to the limit. There was only one question to be answered. Who is going to be the ECC Champion? The men’s race is set go off at 11:00 am. Officials, coaches, friends, family and runners are startled with anticipation.
Coach Paul Rupprecht wanted me to start in the middle of the pack
and finish as high in the field as I could. I was feeling good and
ready to run. The gun went off and I was running pretty relaxed for
the first mile.
I had to watch out because about 400 meters into the race, somebody fell right in front of the pack. I was running through mud, rocks, fallen tree branches and gravel. The main thing I told myself was not to fall and keep up!
During the last mile of the race, coach Rupprecht starting yelling
at me to start kicking it in. There was one runner ahead of me from
Molloy College. All coach told me was to pass this guy. We changed
positions four times until the last 200 meters, when we both
sprinted through puddles of water to the finish. We were dead tied
until I passed him with 20 meters to go. I saw the clock hit 31:04
and placed 25th overall.
I was done, but not satisfied because I knew I could do better. The
next day I talked one of my friends at Mercy College. I told him
that if I knew that top 14 runners get plaques I would’ve
probably gone out harder from the beginning.
“It’s your fault you should run hard as you can every race,” said Earl Pommills. He was right and I am taking this race as a learning experience for the next time I run. I thank Earl, because he let me realize that if I really wanted to be in the top-14 I would’ve pushed myself a little more. Also, I should not worry about anything else, but coming in 1st place.
The east regional cross-country championships are on Nov. 8 and I will push my body harder than I ever had before.
